Pink Elephants on Parade Virtual 5K

One of the fundraising events I am most excited about for Team in Training is easily the Pink Elephants on Parade Virtual 5K! I had never even heard about Virtual 5K's before and now I think I might be hooked.

A Virtual 5K basically means that anyone and everyone can join in - on their own time and their own terms. You can run or walk the event whenever and wherever is convenient for you during the time frame of the race. Most organizers tend to give a long weekend window of four days, but I have also seen an event span over a week or even a month. As completion time's cannot be recorded officially, most folks don't even tend to request them, while others will have participants email or submit a form with the information for a fun finisher's certificate. But the best part, as with all races, is the bling! 

And my race will be no different. While the point is for the majority of the registration donations to go toward my fundraising goal, I am still working very hard to make sure everyone has a great experience with this race. I am giddy about getting some spectacularly sparkly pink medals made and putting together my finisher packages. 

Because a major factor in a Virtual 5K's success race is theme. Sure, runners love bling, but it helps if they care about what is on the bling. I was wracking my brain for a good theme that could tie into Disney's Dumbo since I'm training for Disneyland's Dumbo Double Dare. At first I really wanted to do something with Timothy Q. Mouse. That mouse is adorable and most Disney fans already love one famous mouse - I figured he could be a hit! But then, while searching through Dumbo screen caps, inspiration struck - Pink Elephants on Parade! Those crazy elephants from Dumbo's drunken clown juice hallucination. 

But, I don't know about you - those things are the stuff of nightmares in my opinion. I don't know if this was some kind of public service announcement by Disney against drinking or what, but these guys are frightening! A huge part of my excitement regarding all this has been the fabulous original artwork created by my amazing and talented friend Lahela Schoessler to overcome this issue. She is a wonderful artist and animator and with her love of Disney she came up with the perfect compromise - the psychedelic power of Dumbo's pink elephants with the cuteness factor of Winnie the Pooh's Heffalumps! Yeah, yeah; ya see it now? GENIUS.

So here I will house my Race FAQ for anyone interested in signing up or that has already signed up and might have some questions! 

RACE FAQ

Details

Cause: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Event Page: Facebook

Cost: $20 

Distance: 5K - 3.11 miles

Swag

Printable personalized race bib

Printable finisher's certificate

Spectacularly Sparkly Pink Medal from CrownAwards with original artwork by Lahela Schoessler

Fun themed goodies

Medal Design

Registration

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Fill out this online form after your run if you'd like your time on your finisher's certificate

Additional Gear

LOGOSPORTSWEAR : Running shirts

ZAZZLE : T-shirts and water bottles

Timeline

April 19th-22nd: race days

April 22nd: final day to register

April 29th: all swag bags will be mailed out by this time

Please feel free to comment with any questions! Thank you! Otherwise, I'll just leave this here...